New iPad Pro/iOS 11

The newest Apple announcement (I think it was last week) had some yawns and a few things to get excited about. Let’s talk about the 10.5″ iPad Pro. According to Mac Rumors:

I’ve seen the 12″ iPad Pro. It almost seems too big. Haven’t bothered checking out the 9.7″. I have an iPad Mini 3, which I don’t use all that much.

I’ve had the iPad 1,2,3 and the Mini 2 and 3. (The Mini 2 was from a failed mobility project at work. They deactivated the cell data and told me they didn’t want the tablet back).

The iPad has a buttload of promise, but one huge shortfall: it’s still a MOBILE operating system. That means you can only do one thing at a time. My personal “workflow” normally involves having a YouTube video playing in the background, or a podcast, while I’m going through email, reading RSS, or whatever else. You CANNOT do that on an iPad. OK, I have two Minis, so I guess I could play the YouTube video on one while I work on the other. Yeah.

Apple seriously needs to put some desktop features on the iPad, specifically the ability to open a YouTube video in Safari, then switch back to Apple Mail. Normally, when Apple goes through its annual update to iOS and MacOS, I see things like the following:

Update to iMessages!

Update to Photos!

14 freaking cameras that work as one!

Undecipherable update to Apple Music!

None of which excite me. I use an Android phone, so iMessages is useless to me, and I have yet to get excited about a new iPhone due to the above. Photos has some usefulness, but for my purposes, the built-in Windows photo viewer does what I need. And on my Mac, I just go through my pictures in Finder. Don’t care about cameras; ever since the iPhone 4 era, phone cameras have been at the resolution I need. And I don’t use Apple Music, which only works on Apple products. I’ve been using Amazon Prime Music lately (not the extra subscription service.)

According to Mac Rumors, iOS 11 does seem to have some interesting features, (at least on the iPad Pro):

Files – could be a game changer. Imagine that; actually being able to manipulate the file system on a tablet (you could do this on Windows tablets back in the 90’s… welcome to the future, Apple!)

The Dock – could be interesting. Is this only on the Pro, or will I also get this when I upgrade my Mini 3? (Yes, at the bottom of the page, both the Mini 2 and Mini 3 will get iOS 11. But will they get ALL THE FEATURES?)

Multitasking – if this is available on my Minis, that would be great. I could use them more.

Drag and Drop – again, you had this capability on Windows tablets back in the 90’s. You’re way late to the party, Apple!

Apple Pencil – will this work on the Mini?

Instant Markup – Adobe has had this on phones and tablets for years, but having it native would be useful.

Instant notes – again, had this in Evernote and OneNote. My cheap ass RCA Windows 10 tablet from Walmart came with this feature. But having it on the iPad means we’ll think Apple invented it!

Inline Drawing – looks pretty cool!

Scan and sign – part revolutionary, part late to the party. Evernote did this years ago. I had to scan my entire 110 page divorce agreement in 2015. I used Evernote for this. But to be able to sign… will anybody accept it? I tried to sign documents in Adobe with a stylus and had them rejected. I had to revert to 1848 technology (yes, the fax was invented THAT FREAKING LONG AGO) and “wet sign” and fax said documents, even though my signature looked exactly the same. I couldn’t tell the difference. How could they?

Quicktype Keyboard – interesting. I’ll have to play with it.

Augmented reality – just an API. Others have to develop apps for it. I had an AR app on the Nokia 920 I had in 2014. It was pretty cool. And Apple has had the ability for people to develop hardware that plugs into iOS devices since the iPad 2. I don’t know if anybody ever did.

That’s enough. I don’t get paid for this.

Chances are, I’ll get the public beta when it’s available. I’ll make some updates after I’ve gotten my hands on it. Now I need to look up MacOS 10.13. High Sierra. Although it’s been years since Apple introduced anything revolutionary into their MacOS.